John Doyle: There’s no let-up in the Dover-Spaulding rivalry

Saturday

Feb 2, 2013 at 3:15 AM

Is Spaulding-Dover the best high-school sports rivalry in the state? Let’s do the math.

A playoff football game decided by a field goal as time expired. A boys basketball game that ends with a last-second shot for the win. A hockey game decided in overtime. Another boys basketball game ends with a buzzer-beating shot. A girls basketball game that came down to the final seconds.

All five events happened over the last 15 months — the last three were this week alone. Throw in last fall’s boys soccer game played in slop in which Spaulding rallied from a three-goal deficit, and a hockey playoff semifinal (one that wasn’t decided at the last minute, but still exciting) won 3-0 by the Green Wave, and yeah, there’s no question that when it comes to sports rivalries in the 603, right now there’s nothing better than Spaulding-Dover no matter what the sport.

It’s good to see that the administrations at the two schools agree, a fact made obvious by the fact that this week’s hockey, boys basketball and girls basketball games were played on three successive nights, so that students and fans could attend all three. In Friday night’s girls basketball game, Dover had the ball trailing by a point with 12 seconds to go, but Spaulding held on for the win.

That came just one night after Spaulding’s Nick MacGregor hit a fallaway jumper that swished through the mesh as time expired to lift the Red Raiders to a 60-59 win on the Green Wave’s home court.

The Red Raiders, which had called timeout twice before Seth Fogg inbounded the ball to MacGregor, were contemplating using a play that they had just drawn up earlier on Thursday. But at the last minute, they thought better of it.

“We realized no one really knew the play,” MacGregor said. “Then we went to one of our old ones that hasn’t failed us yet.”

Even if Spaulding had tried to execute a play they’d just drawn up that afternoon, it would have been hard to hear in the huddle. The crowd on hand was most likely the largest either team had played in front of this season, and they weren’t exactly going to be quiet.

“When you play Dover, you know it’s going to be a tough game no matter where they are in the (standings),” said Fogg. “The atmosphere was crazy. The fans were as great as they could be.”

This was all for a regular-season game. Imagine the atmosphere if the two teams meet in the D-I tournament next month.

“It definitely had a postseason feel,” said Dover senior forward Colin Shaughnessy after Thursday’s game. “Packed house on both sides. The two schools are so close. Gotta give them credit, they’re a good team and they came out played good tonight.”

The win lifted Spaulding to 10-1, which puts it solidly among the top three in D-I. Dover, despite the loss, is now 6-4 and right in the hunt to host a first-round tournament game.

Spaudling coach Tim Cronin was happy to see his senior leadership come through in the clutch.

“Two seniors doing what they had to do,” Cronin said about the final play. “We’re a senior team for the most part. We’ve got good seniors and I think they play well together. They share it with others and do a great job for us.”

Even though both teams will certainly qualify for the tournament, the odds are against a playoff meeting between the two schools, given how wide open the D-I tournament is (16 teams). What is believed to be the only postseason game between Dover and Spaulding came in 2011, with the Red Raiders earning a 46-38 first-round victory at home. (Another playoff showdown would have happened last year in the semifinals had Dover upset eventual champion Merrimack in the quarters.)

Thursday’s basketball game came on the heels of the Red Raider hockey team’s 3-2 overtime win over Dover before a packed house at the Rochester Arena. Spaulding rallied from a 2-0 hole and won the game when Brent Phillips broke the tie with a sudden-death goal 31 seconds into the extra frame.

And here’s the good news: The hockey teams are set to meet again, two weeks from today, in Dover. Yet another postseason meeting could very well be in the works, as both are near the top of the Division II standings. The clubs have met 10 times in the postseason since 1995, and Dover leads the all-time series 7-3. Should the potential rematch come in the D-II championship game on March 9 (2:30 p.m.) at the Verizon Wireless Arena (can we dream?), it would be the fifth time the teams meet in the finals.

That particular series is tied 2-2. Everyone in the state should be rooting for a tiebreaker to happen soon.

John Doyle is a staff sports writer and editor for Foster’s Daily Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @JohnDoyle603 or email jdoyle@fosters.com.